Tag: Education in 2017

Success Academy Charter Schools was formerly known as Harlem Success Academy. It is a charter school that operates 34 charter schools in New York City. Eva Moskowitz is the CEO and founder of Success Academy. The first Success Academy was opened in 2006 in Harlem. Subsequently, more schools opened in other neighborhoods in New York City. More than 9000 students are now schooling at Success Academy.

The schools record astounding success rates. Success Academy students’ proficiency in English is at 64 percent against New York City kids’ ability of 29 per cent. In Math, the proficiency rates of Success Academy in math is at 94 per cent against NYC rate of 35 per cent. The score is based on the States’ Common Core- oriented examinations. Success Academy students from the poorer communities outperform the ones in the wealthier suburbs.

The impressive results are credited to the teachers according to Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz. She emphasizes on the thorough preparedness and in-depth understanding of the curriculum by the teachers. Success Academy has its unique way of ensuring the preparation of its teachers through the Teacher Success Academy; T-school. The T-school uses the teacher-preparation program designed by Success Academy. Teachers undergo a training session that lasts for four weeks.

Success Academy has a remarkable IT system that provides access to a lot of technology for its teachers. Each classroom is equipped with a SMART Board, and all teachers have the MacBook Pro. Everyone can communicate with each other across the Success Academy network, and this also encourages sharing videos of lessons.

The kindergarten classes each have a lead teacher and an assistant teacher. Across other grades, however, assistant teachers are shared across the categories. Fresh college graduates and inexperienced teachers cannot serve as lead teachers at Success Academy without first serving as associate teachers.

Teachers also spend a significant amount of time engaging with the parents of their students either through e-mails, phone calls, and meetings. Teachers work closely with parents to ensure the work plan is implemented for each student. This cooperation also helps in cases requiring student discipline.